Creating a way of living each day, still including travel tales, and appreciation of places, events, and cultures, but also thoughtful examination of life and all that entails.
I welcome any and all questions, comments, arguments, refutations, criticisms... sea stories..

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Long Overdue

I know that I am long overdue for a post, and offer up as my lone excuse that I spent the last month in the land of no science: aka Kansas.

On the subject of which, I want to caution everyone to avoid AT&T's Uverse at all costs. The house I was staying at and remodeling (well this time doing exterior work) tried this UVerse tv and internet back in October, and from the very first day of installation on it was nothing but trouble at all levels. The salesman lied, the installers damaged the home (and turns out stole the DSL modem from the previous DSL installation!!), customer service was anything but service. There is NOTHING good to be said about this company. They never did honor ANY of their promises, would not offer any compensation for the time spent trying to get it sorted out, nor even pay for the damages to the home. One of the customer service reps, who claimed to be the head of billing, said that I should feel lucky to get the empty promise of a $15 dollar credit for spending over 19 hours on the phone trying to resolve the issues. She went further in saying that was pretty good pay for my time, though she tried to deny it when I called her on it and made it clear I was writing down everything she was saying.

I dislike being negative, especially when resuming the blog, but please everyone save yourself the hassle and avoid Uverse! Even the guy at the UPS Store where you have to go to send Uverse the equipment (yeah they threaten to charge you if you do not ship them back the equipment!!) said that he was getting dozens of the Uverse returns every day. Obviously no one is happy with this program.

"How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it." — Edward Abbey

"I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. " — Henry David Thoreau (Civil Disobedience)

"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn." — Henry David Thoreau

"A man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of life getting his living." — Henry David Thoreau